To complete an upgrade, balance the server load, manage drive space, or relocate mailboxes
when users move to a different location, you can move mailboxes from
one server or database to another server or database. Exchange Server
2010 supports online mailbox moves.
Moving Mailboxes: The Essentials
In earlier releases of Exchange, moving
mailboxes while they were actively being used wasn't a good idea
because it caused some disruption to the affected users. For this
reason, Exchange Server 2010 performs move operations as a series of
steps that allow a mailbox to remain available to a user while the move
operation is being completed. When the move is completed, the user
begins accessing the mailbox in the new location. Because users can
continue to access their e-mail account during the move, you can
perform online moves at any time.
The destination database for a move can be on the same server, on a
different server, in a different domain, in a different Active
Directory site, or in another forest. However, some caveats apply:
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When your source and destination Mailbox servers are running
Exchange Server 2010 or Exchange Server 2007 SP2 or later and are in
the same or different forests, you can use the Exchange Management
Console or the New-MoveRequest cmdlet to perform an online mailbox
move. This might be necessary when you are moving mailboxes
between an on-premises and an online Exchange organization. You perform
the move from the Exchange 2010 Mailbox server. You can't move
mailboxes from Exchange 2007 SP1 or earlier.
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When your source servers are running Exchange Server 2003 SP2 or
later and your destination servers are running Exchange Server 2010,
you cannot perform an online mailbox move. You need to perform an offline
mailbox move instead. You do this by starting the move operation on the
Exchange 2010 Mailbox server with the New-MoveRequest cmdlet. You can't
move mailboxes from Exchange 2003 SP1 or earlier.
Performing online moves is a multistep process that is initiated with a Move Mailbox request that is sent to the Microsoft Exchange Mailbox
Replication Service (MRS) running on a Client Access server in the
source forest. The MRS queues the request for processing, handling all
requests on a first-in, first-out basis. When a request is at the top
of the queue, the replication service begins replicating mailbox data
to the destination database. When the replication service finishes its
initial replication of a mailbox, it marks the mailbox as Ready To
Complete and periodically performs data synchronization between the
source and destination database to ensure that the contents of a
mailbox are up to date. After a mailbox has been moved, you can
complete the move request and finalize the move.
In the Exchange Management Console, you can track the status of move
requests by expanding Recipient Configuration and then selecting the
Move Request node (see Figure 1).
If a move request fails, you can get more information about the failure
by double-clicking the move request and then clicking the View button
to the right of the Failed Message entry.
When you move mailboxes
from one server to another, or even to a different database on the same
sever, keep in mind that the Exchange policies of the new mailbox database might be different from the old one. Because of this, consider the following issues before you move mailboxes to a new server or database:
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General policy
Changes to watch out for include those in the default public folder
database, the offline address book, and message settings. The risk is
that the users whose mailboxes
you move could lose or gain access to public folders. They might have a
different offline address book, which might have different entries.
This address book will also have to be downloaded in its entirety the
first time the user's mail client connects to Exchange after the move.
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Database policy
Changes to watch out for pertain to the maintenance interval and
automatic mounting. If Exchange performs maintenance when these users
are accessing their mail, they might have slower response times. If the
mailbox database is configured so that it isn't mounted at startup,
restarting the Exchange services could result in the users not being
able to access their mailboxes.
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Limits
Changes to watch
out for pertain to storage limits and deletion settings. Users might be
prohibited from sending and receiving mail if their mailbox exceeds the
storage limits of the new mailbox database. Users might notice that
deleted items stay in their Deleted Items folder longer or are deleted
sooner than expected if the Keep Deleted Items setting is different.
